Episode 37: Can the U.S. Postal Service Avoid a Bailout?

April 13, 2018 By Caffeinated Thoughts

The creation of a task force to examine U.S. Postal Service finances comes after President Donald Trump claimed that Amazon, USPS largest customer, is getting service way below costs. The Postal Service works on Sundays and delivers two-thirds of Amazon’s packages, but gives them a reduced rate. Despite the volume of work, USPS is heavily in debt. In 2017, USPS reported a net loss of $2.7 billion despite raising prices on stamps and flat-rate boxes- their only proven revenue streams. With net losses in 2016 and 2015 at $5.6 billion and $5.1 billion respectively, a call for a taxpayer bailout is in their future. The alternative is that the Postal Service will get their oversight agency, the Postal Regulatory Commission, to lift the cap on postal rates so they can dig out of its financial hole by spiking what consumers pay for services instead of fixing the way they do business.

Can the U.S. Postal Service avoid a bailout and begin to turn a profit? Our host, Shane Vander Hart, discusses this with David Williams who is President of the Taxpayer Protection Alliance located in Washington, D.C.

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